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Millions of dollars worth of theft charges laid against
"accidental millionaire" Kara Hurring have been dropped due to a
lack of evidence.

All the previously laid theft charges against Hurring, adding up
to around $7 million, have been dropped by the Crown, along with
money laundering charges adding up to around $500,000.

She is now facing 26 counts of theft in relation to around
$11,000, and two new money laundering charges of more than HK$1.5
million relating to activities in Macau.

Judge McGuire told the Rotorua District Court this morning the
new charges were just a "pale echo" of what Hurring was previously
facing.

The officer in charge of the original investigation, Detective
Senior Sergeant Mark Loper, said the new charges were still of a
serious nature.

"The money laundering charges are significant, to the point that
given their international nature, approval was required from the
Solicitor General in order to lay them," he said.

"There is still a lot of work going on behind the scenes, but
for obvious reasons, we are not in a position to be able to discuss
that. Having said that, we are still actively seeking Mr Gao in
relation to the theft of $6,782,000."

Hurring allegedly fled to Asia after Westpac mistakenly loaded
$10 million into her boyfriend's account and has previously pleaded
not guilty to a raft of money laundering charges.

The alleged offence occurred in May 2009 when a $10 million
overdraft was mistakenly loaded into the business account of Hui
(Leo) Gao, Hurring's partner at the time.

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He had applied for a $100,000 overdraft to save his struggling
Rotorua petrol station.

Gao and Hurring allegedly transferred $6,782,000 of the money
into other accounts, and then both left New Zealand for Hong Kong
with Hurring's daughter. Gao left on April 29 and Hurring on May
3.

The pair, who became known as the "accidental millionaires",
disappeared with no word besides reports of spend-ups at Macau
casinos.

The bank, left red-faced by the error, fired the teller
responsible for misplacing the decimal point and has been working
with authorities in China to recover some of the money.